


Star-Painted Sky

by baccuroth (orphan_account)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, alternate universe - empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 14:33:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4964350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/baccuroth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>handwritten empire au posted at sennfan's request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gift

**Author's Note:**

> [what](http://artcrystals.tumblr.com/post/71943696839) erwin and levi look like.

Concubines rarely received gifts. Of all the things Levi knew completely, this was one of them. It was an octagonal box that fit in the palm of his hand, crafted of gold with a cabochon gem set into each of its eight sides. It hadn’t been wrapped when he received it, merely sitting on his bedside table the morning after Erwin had paid him a bedtime visit.

The box was empty and Levi had nothing to put in it save for a thin silver ring he had always worn. It slept in the gold box every night. For the next month, Levi saw Erwin rarely. Preparations for war were underway and there was little time for idle conversation save for the few hours each week Erwin fucked away between Levi’s thighs. The following month, just before dawn on a Wednesday, Levi was roused from sleep.

“You will be attending the emperor on the field,” was all the servant said. Levi gathered his lightest clothing - and the gold box – and followed. It was a hot summer, and Levi heard many men die.

Erwin was tense and irritable. He fucked Levi every other night, more to relive tension that to gain pleasure. Before battle resumed each day, Levi slipped out to see what trinkets he could add to the gold box. A coin that had probably fallen out of a dead soldier’s pocket, something that might have been a finger bone from a battle fought there decades before. Each night, before Erwin returned, Levi emptied the box and put everything back in.

“Ah, the octagonal box.” Erwin leaned down until his head hovered over Levi’s shoulder. The battle was winding down. The empire was likely to win so Erwin’s mood had improved over the last week.

“Why did you give it to me?”

Erwin pursed his lips in thought. “I was curious as to what you would deem worthy of keeping.”

He began to pour fresh, cold water into his washbasin. Levi sprang to his feet, the half-filled box abandoned in a tapestry-turned-rug. It was all but forgotten as concubine served emperor and fell into the sands of time when the camp broke four days later. While he never thought about it explicitly, Levi could have said the only thing worth keeping was Erwin’s attention.


	2. Clandestine

Jeweled fingers clasped the robe shut at the breast. Erwin’s room was empty most nights. Even if he wished to lay with his wife, he would be hard to find.

Augusta knew where Erwin would be — in the crown concubine’s chambers, with its massive en suite and obscene murals. Her robe danced around her legs as she left the family’s wing of the palace. The wing housing the entertainers reeked of incense and oil. A servant left one of the rooms, bowing low until Augusta passed. The jangle was rhythmic and Augusta swallowed as she slipped through the doors.

What could she expect? She had seen the concubine’s dance, how his eyes had never left Erwin. ‘A dance of love,’ he had said, fine chest rising with deep breaths. It had been a coupling at her wedding that hadn’t involved her. Erwin had bedded her that night, perfunctory but pleasant, and then left. She lay awake that night imagining Erwin taking that sleek creature; cock still wet from his wife’s cunt.

He wore a loincloth now, no star-stained skirt to dance with; but Erwin was rapt all the same. He lay on a divan in the center of the room, piled high with azure and gold pillows. His eyes followed Levi, tracing each somersault and twist. He seemed to catalog the shift of muscle beneath flesh. Levi wheeled around one final time and Augusta saw what created the jangling sound. Along with belled bewits on each ankle, stacks of beaten metal bracelets decorated his wrists. He also wore a veil hanging down from his headdress. His eyes might have been heavily lined with kohl, but Augusta could only see so much from behind the cool, dark column.

Levi landed heavily on the divan, throwing the pillows into the air. Erwin pushed them aside, Levi rolling onto his belly graceful as a cat and raised his eyes slowly. Erwin unclipped the veil and Augusta’s breath stilled. He studied Levi’s face as if it were something rare. An unconscious smile touched his hard mouth. In the silence she could imagine Levi biting his lip, trying to keep back a snarky remark.

Erwin cupped Levi’s face with one hand and then his other. Augusta leaned forward at the kiss, watching the strength in Levi’s frame melt in the presence of Erwin’s love for him. She pulled back as if burned.

Erwin rolled onto his back, pulling Levi over him, his hands groping for ripe buttocks, grinding up against a hardening cock. Levi pulled back to throw the veil off, loosening the belt that kept his loincloth on. Erwin held himself up by his elbows and looked him over as Levi stripped. He was lovely in a dour way, Augusta admitted, as she slipped out. She didn’t need to see Erwin, her husband, worship all that white-gold flesh.

Her hand let go of her robe, and it opened like fine fabric run through with a knife. Her womb would expand soon, to accommodate the royal heir Erwin had planted there some weeks before. A low moan reached her ears; her teeth clenched. Gathering her robe with both hands, she ran back to her rooms. Part of her wanted to return to Erwin’s quarters, find some evidence that he’d brought his concubine there, against the rules even for a ruler. The larger part of Augusta that wanted to sleep took over. The moonlight burned her flesh to a chill and she slept nude, curled beneath a sheer curtain. The spirit swimming inside her was something Levi could never give Erwin. She took all the comfort she needed in that truth.


	3. Passing

The concubine dipped the tips of his fingers into the water. The sun had set hours earlier and he was still waiting for word of the Empress's condition. As he was thinking on this, the beaded curtain of his chambers leading out onto the terrace shivered with sound. Levi sat up, pulling his knees against his chest.

“Neither survived.” Erwin’s words were said without emotion.

Levi took Erwin’s hand and squeezed it, rising just enough to press his lips against the emperor’s fingers. It was all he could do to comfort him for the time being; any coupling would be delayed for months.

“I’m sorry, Erwin.”

“Hmm?” Erwin was staring into the pool, only to shake his attention away from it. “Oh, yes. Well. Such things do happen. At least Augusta gave me a son last year. If he doesn’t die before I do, at least my heir is secured.”

Levi had never cared much for Augusta, but Levi got the feeling he was more grieved over her death than her own husband.

“She will be returned to her family. She doesn’t belong to this city of stone and dirt, cold as she could be.” His fingers tightened around Levis suddenly. “Be with me tonight.”

Levi pulled his hand away and shuddered, realizing how cold the night air had become. "I don’t think that is appropriate at this time.”

Erwin hummed again, gaze turning back to the pool. “I suppose you are right, my love. As always.”


	4. Smoke

Erwin could always smell it from down the hall. It was a sweet, tangy scent and Levi was the only one to smoke it in the entire palace.

Levi lay on a bank of cobalt blue and fiery-gold cushions, ankles crossed and head tilted back as he sucked on the stem of the hookah. It was a strange contraption, an import from other lands; but Levi enjoyed the bubble of the water and how the smoke swirled like blue cobwebs above him before fading. Erwin admired the languid concubine and breathed in the smell he had come to associate with Levi.

“Are you going to stand there?” His head rolled up to study Erwin with half-lidded eyes. “Or are you going to join me?”

Levi moved his legs as Erwin walked over. His skirt pulled up and Erwin caressed a bare, milky thigh. Smoke flowed from Levi’s lips like silent words. “Did you miss me today?”

Erwin moved his hand up, caressing a gold band near Levi’s groin. “Always. I’ll miss you just as much once I leave you again.”

Levi spread his legs and took another pull on the hookah. Erwin cupped him through his loincloth and Levi moaned. The smoke came out of Levi’s nose and Erwin was reminded of a contended dragon lounging on its piles of treasure. It would be black and gold. His concubine reminded Erwin of so many strange and beautiful things.

Levi lolled to the side and Erwin smiled, fingers moving up to tease the sensitive skin of his soft belly. He undid Levi’s skirt and smoothed it out next to his hips with his free hand. Levi lifted his hips so Erwin could pull his loincloth loose and hummed deep down in his chest as his cock was swallowed whole. Levi sucked on the stem of the hookah as he stroked Erwin’s golden hair. The emperor sucked his love boy dry and Levi came with a plume of fragrant smoke. He licked Levi clean and laid his tousled head on Levi’s thigh.

The hookah hissed one last time and Levi coaxed Erwin up to share the heady smoke in a deep kiss. Erwin coughed slightly but he could taste Levi in the smoke, and swallowed it down as easily as water. Levi nipped Erwin’s lips before falling back onto the cushions with a pout.

“I’m all out,” he glanced at the cooling hookah. Erwin stroked his cheek.

“I’ll make sure more is delivered along with your tea.”

Levi kissed his palms in thanks. Neither said anything when Erwin left. Levi slept and Erwin returned to his duties. Before too long they would be together under a cloud of sweet, tangy smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more empire au [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/182660), [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3464576), and [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3464468).


End file.
